Amid the calls for legislation on population management, the government on Thursday announced that it will set up a “high powered committee” to examine the challenges arising from fast population growth and demographic changes.
In pursuit of the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’, a committee will be mandated to make recommendations to address these challenges comprehensively, said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Interim Budget speech in the Lok Sabha yesterday.
Throwing light upon the ‘societal changes’, the minister asserted that the government will present a detailed roadmap for this goal in the full Budget in July.
While no detail drawing upon the mandate has been released, a finance ministry official said the terms of reference of the panel will be officially spelt out by the government in due course.
Ajay Seth, secretary, department of economic affairs, told a post-budget press conference, “When we talk about demography, it’s an opportunity, it’s a challenge. The current numbers, how the changes are happening over a period of time, the committee will have a mandate to outline extensive consideration of these challenges and come out with a specific set of recommendations”
Sources claimed issues linked to jobs, skilling, urbanisation and segments that needed attention for faster development may also be included under the ambit of issues to be examined.
The economic intelligence unit(EIU) said in a note, “India’s youthful demographic profile is a crucial advantage, promising good availability of labour, the forecasts that India’s working-age population will expand past 1 billion in the period of 2030”
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